Intratumoral CD103+ CD8+ T cells predict response to PD-L1 blockade

BACKGROUND: CD8+ tissue-resident memory T (T(RM)) cells, marked by CD103 (ITGAE) expression, are thought to actively suppress cancer progression, leading to the hypothesis that their presence in tumors may predict response to immunotherapy. METHODS: Here, we test this by combining high-dimensional single-cell modalities with bulk tumor transcriptomics from 1868 patients enrolled in lung and bladder cancer clinical trials of atezolizumab (anti-programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1)). RESULTS: ITGAE was identified as the most significantly upregulated gene in inflamed tumors. Tumor CD103+ CD8+ T(RM) cells exhibited a complex phenotype defined by the expression of checkpoint regulators, cytotoxic proteins, and increased clonal expansion. CONCLUSIONS: Our analyses indeed demonstrate that the presence of CD103+ CD8+ T(RM) cells, quantified by tracking intratumoral CD103 expression, can predict treatment outcome, suggesting that patients who respond to PD-1/PD-L1 blockade are those who exhibit an ongoing antitumor T-cell response.